Here I is

Phew, that sure was a prolonged silence...especially from the likes of me! Thanks for the inquiries as to whether I was alive or not. I'm sure that's how they'll tell, at that final moment in the hospital. The doctor won't need to check my pulse, just whether I'm talking or not. Because when my talking stops...we all know that can't be a good sign.

Nothing major or new going on, just had to actually work for a few days there, Orlando, Buffalo, you know the deal. Tradeshow, demo, etc. Got to see my good friend B. from high school, and she hooked me up with like a DOZEN slammin' house music CDs from her friends at Om, many of whom I got to meet and hang out with at this year's WMC in Miami. Kewl. Almost blew out my eardrums on the drive back from Orlando.

Now we're taking bids from plumbers and contractors for the master bath and fireplace renovations, and discovering little problems with our lovely stained concrete floor. Like, the color comes off waaaaay too easily if you scrape it with something or accidentally put a piece of industrial-strength TAPE on it. Ahem, O.H. So now, since we were planning on doing the living room floor this weekend, I need to re-evaluate the product we're using. I followed the instructions TO THE LETTER, I swear, I was ridiculously obedient to the package label. AND we put 3 layers of glossy sealer on it. So it really shouldn't have lifted off quite so readily.

I need to look into obtaining a sample of real concrete acid stain, and seeing what kind of results we'll get with it. I'm nervous about the color result - you can't control those kind of stains, really, and we need it to coordinate with this trim color in order for my world to make visual sense. And we all know how important that is to me.

At the moment, Roscoe (who is now 15, if you can believe that) is out in the mobile vet's van, being poked and prodded in all kinds of unimaginable places, the poor thing. He's acting exactly the same as he did for the last decade and a half, but has lost a lot of weight and become quite bony. Old-man skinny, I call it. So we're worried about him, but hopeful it's something treatable. I guess time (and LOTS and LOTS of expensive tests) will tell.